My sweetheart Marilyn and I occasionally (OK, I’ll be honest, often) have a problem. We play at different speeds. On skis or a hiking trail, for example, I’ll loaf along at a pace that feels positively catatonic, then stop and wait while she catches up. She, of course, sees it differently. . . .I’m betting there are a lot of other couple with the same problem. Maybe you are one?
In the name of love, we’ve learned to compensate. I deliberately overload my hiking pack while she goes lightly burdened. It helps. Snowshoeing or cross country skiing, I break trail. I took up Telemark skiing because it forces me to SLOW DOWN (her words). And, besides, telemark is fun.
But bicycles are a challenge. We both enjoy biking moderate distances, on quiet back roads or rail trails on mountain or road bikes. Neither of us wants to ride in a bike race. But, for Marilyn, who hadn’t biked since childhood until she met me, the pace and distances I want to pedal are daunting. I feel the same way when I try to ride with some of my serious biker friends.We considered not biking together. But we like biking and each other’s company. So we decided to go for a “bicycle built for two.” That way, I can’t possibly outdistance her.
Our tandem quest began as always, with research. There’s a list of resources below.
On the advice of a friend, we visited Belmont Wheelworks in Belmont, Mass, probably the largest retailer of tandem bikes in New England for a tandem “lesson” and demo ride. Tandem guru Doug McKenzie took us out with a beautiful Co-Motion tandem bike and showed us the basics, starting with a lecture on how tandems work and who’s responsible for what.
The “Captain,” who rides in front, has to stabilize the bike, handle all the shifting, braking and steering, and set the pace. The Captain is also responsible for communicating all upcoming gear shifts, turns and bumps to the “Stoker” on the back seat. The Captain’s number one priority is keeping the Stoker (or, if she or he is your significant other, the “Rear Admiral”) happy.
The Stoker watches for approaching cars, reads maps, signals turns, contributes his or her fair share to the pedaling and enjoys the ride. That division of labor obviously requires the Stoker to relinquish control, which wouldn’t work for some couples.
Doug had me ride Stoker to his Captain. Good lesson; one I’d highly recommend for any potential Captain. He then took Marilyn for a ride; she loved riding with an experienced Captain.
Then came “The Test.” Could we ride together? That question was quickly answered: “yes.” No, make that “YES!!!” We didn’t have any problem starting (one of the hard parts of tandeming), seemed to be able to communicate and work together. Most of all, we had fun. We had a biking future together after all!
Since then, we’ve pedaled our own tandem on some of our most memorable adventures. We’ve gone Inn to Inn biking in Vermont, in Quebec and on Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard. We took our tandem on the old “Cat” Ferry across to Nova Scotia and pedaled there. We’ve ridden rail trails in New Hampshire, along the Missisquoi River and Lake Champlain in Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, on the Véloroute des Bleuets and on our honeymoon in Eastern Townships and Outaouais regions of Quebec. We even pedaled the route of Paul Revere’s Ride 234 years to the day after it happened.
So how about you? Do you have someone you’d like to ride with but can’t because you ride at different paces? Does the idea of really sharing an outdoor experience appeal to you? Do you really like each other’s company? If you answered “YES!”, maybe there’s a tandem bicycle in your future.
DOUBLE STICKER SHOCK
With tandems (as all bikes), the one ironclad rule is: if it’s cheap, you don’t want it. Quality tandems come in a variety of styles and price ranges from expensive! to really expensive!.
My advice for buying any bike is to visit several reputable specialty shops, test ride as many different bikes as possible and see what they feel like. Narrow your search down to specific models by reputable manufacturers. Then go shopping for price and service.
While looking for tandems, I found everything from ancient, rusted clunkers for $150, to super-light hi-tech carbon-fiber and titanium bikes retailing for $13,000. Zowee! Generally, though good new tandems were selling from $1,300 to $6,000 and quality used tandems were $750 to $3,000.
That sounds like a lot of money until you realize that a quality bike can take 20 years of hard use. While we were shopping, we met a married couple who were replacing their 1991 Cannondale tandem (which they rode to North Carolina last summer!) with a new Santana ti-carbon tandem as his retirement present.
Because Marilyn and I love dirt road and bike path riding, we looked mainly at “mountain bike” and “hybrid” style tandems, and finally found a gently-used Burley “Samba” hybrid that we could (barely) afford. Alas, Burley has since gone out of business as a tandem bike manufacturer but they still make great bike trailers and their bikes are still rolling along nicely.
TANDEM CLUBS (great way to get introduced to tandem riding!)
T-Bone (Tandem Bicyclists Of New England) Sponsors lots of fun club rides.
Eastern Tandem Rally holds a huge gathering each year. Other events can be found at tandemseast.com
Manufacturers:
Bike Friday: fold-up travel tandems.
Bilenky: upright and recumbent tandems.
Bushnell: Custom tandems, triples, quads and quints.
Calfee Design: Custom tandems, including some with bamboo frames!
Cannondale: road and mountain tandems.
Co-Motion Cycles: Great bikes and the website has lots of good technical discussion on tandem sizing, wheel sizes and general tandem info.
DaVinci Designs: Upright tandems which allow independent pedaling.
Hokitika: a store brand of value-priced tandems
KHS: Value-priced road and hybrid tandems
Longbikes: Recumbent Tandems and bikes for up to six riders.
Rans: recumbent tandems
Santana Bicycles: good general information on tandem cycling, including a fun “compatibility” quiz.
Seven Cycles: road tandems
Trek Bicycles: road and “cruiser” tandems
Tsunami Bikes: racing and touring tandems
Toting A Tandem
Tandem bikes are l-o-n-g-e-r and heavier than solo bikes; alas, they don’t fit on standard bike racks. Unless you always ride from home, you’ll need to budget for a special tandem carrier to go on your vehicle’s roof rack.
Yakima makes a nifty rig called the “Sidewinder” that fits on most vehicle roof racks, lets one person load a tandem on top of a car almost effortlessly, without touching the car, and seems to hold the bike more securely than similar designs. Since my whole rack system for bikes, kayaks, boats, skis and luggage carrier is Yakima, and I can lock it all up with a single key, that’s what I went with.
RockyMounts makes an elegant rooftop tandem carrier called the R4. Both Thule and ATOC also make tandem racks. Cycle Simplex makes hitch racks for tandems. Check them out before you buy.